CHAPTER 54 - RED
CHAPTER
Red
“LET’S LEAVE HER be now.” I steer Arianna out of Maria’s room back at the terraced house. “Allow that shit they injected her with to wear off. We’re only in the room next door, so we’ll hear her if she needs us.”
Arianna stares at me like I’m talking in a foreign tongue but allows me to take her from her sister’s room.
Keeping my hand firmly on her arm, I’m reluctant to break the contact.
Finding Maria drugged and tethered brought back unwanted memories of what Arianna went through - memories I hoped not to think of again.
Nor do I yet want to acknowledge how Luca Bristoni has escaped my wrath again. The words he uttered chilled me to the bone: “You were always supposed to be mine.”
I shudder. Arianna was never Luca Bristoni’s and never will be. If I have to spend the rest of my life hunting down the man, I will.
I wish I hadn’t hung around to ensure Arianna killed Matteo. If I hadn’t, I’d have caught and killed Luca. But instead, I allowed the bastard to escape. However, whichever way I look at it, I suspect tonight has been harder for Arianna than for me.
Closing Maria’s bedroom door behind us, I give one of my guards the signal. They won’t make the mistake of watching TV again when on duty, even if they’re given the option by the boss’s wife and in doing so, miss the person they’re supposed to be guarding disappearing from under their noses.
I doubt they’ll risk blinking from now on. It’s something I’ll take up with them in the morning, but with an hour or so before the rest of the world is up and going about their business, Arianna needs rest.
Mutely, she lets me lead her into our bedroom, where I sit her down on the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling, princess?”
Stupid question, I know.
Kneeling down, I unfasten her boots and wiggle them off her feet. I don’t know what to say. I want her to talk to me; cry, scream, do whatever she needs to rid herself of the burden of killing her own brother. It’s clearly haunting her.
I knew it would. That’s why I didn’t want her to do it. And she nearly didn’t because it was far too easy to forget myself back there and finish Matteo Galvatore myself. I would have done, had Arianna not broken my trance.
Not having received an answer, I brush away a tendril of Arianna’s hair stuck to the congealed blood peppering her complexion.
Gently stroking her cheek, I refrain from scrubbing the filth off her perfect skin.
Her hair is caked in it too, as is mine, and I want nothing of Matteo Galvatore on either of us.
Standing up, I offer her my hand. “Come on. I’ll put the shower on for you.”
Taking my hand, Arianna follows me into the bathroom, her eyes hollow. Her devoid expression breaks me a little more inside. I hope tonight hasn’t been the last straw - not when things were starting to come together.
Opening the shower cubicle, I turn the shower on, the sound of gushing water beckoning me, but Arianna must go first. Grabbing a bath towel, I turn around to find her studying her reflection in the mirror. “The shower’s ready.”
Turning her around to face me, I unbutton her top. “You need to get in the shower and wash that shit off.”
Arianna robotically undoes her jeans and steps out of them. I turn away as she unclips her bra and slips off her panties.
“Are you not joining me?”
Spinning around, I try my hardest not to let my eyes wander over her perfect naked body. Now is hardly the time. “What?”
“I said, are you not joining me?” Moving towards me, she methodically unbuttons my shirt, one button at a time.
I remain motionless, unsure how to react. “Arianna... What are y...”
“You don’t understand, Red. I’m fine.” She unbuckles my jeans. Back from the dead, her eyes are alive again.
Pulling the band from my hair, she releases my ponytail, leaving my tangled curls caked with blood to fall around my shoulders. I try to read her but fail. “Babe, tell me what to do to make things easier for you.”
Ignoring me, Arianna opens the shower cubicle, releasing a plume of steam as she steps underneath the water. Transfixed, I watch the water run over her glorious body. Her eyes close as it streams over her face, down over her breasts and... Oh God.
“What you can do to make this easier for me, Red, is to come and join me.”
Still unsure how to play it, I do as requested and pull my underwear off, kicking it across the floor towards the mound of blood-soaked garments in the corner. Opening the shower door, I tentatively enter the cubicle and stand next to her.
Allowing the water to cascade over my head, I exhale with relief as my stress releases. Unfortunately, the water doesn’t release my painful erection - the one I’m deflecting from by staring at bloody water swirling down the plughole.
“He’s gone,” Arianna whispers, a small smile on her lips. Turning to me, she lathers my chest with a soapy sponge. “Matteo’s gone. I killed him, and I’m glad. Really fucking glad! I’m not bothered that Luca escaped either. He wasn’t the dangerous one. He’s fuck all without Matteo. We’ve won.”